frank

I didn't say it was.

I think this tells me all I needed to glean from your perspective. Thanks for the discussion.

The problem is: this presupposes conflict instead of explaining it. Obviously the UK doesn't feel threatened by American missile placement. If Russia ...

Again, my goal was to understand your statement that NATO sees Russia as an adversary. I think the missile placement issue is more about Putin's objec...

Of course.

So your point is that Russians in general feel threatened by the US? Do you happen to have some data that shows that?

No. If the US placed missiles in Eastern Europe to threaten Russia, there has to be a reason for it.

So your point is that Russians in general have felt threatened by American missile placement? Or is it just the Russian govt? If so, we can probably d...

:up:

I guess I'm more interested in the ways NATO actually threatened Russia. If NATO threatened some Russian's dreams of empire, that doesn't constitute a...

Historians say that perception actually ended with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing. This was the real basis of the cold war: Stalin felt vulnerable...

I don't think the US govt sees Putin as an evil madman. I think they see him as the dictator of a regional power. I was asking specifically about NATO...

I don't think Putin's concern is NATO. It's the US. He wants the US to go down a notch in global importance, and for Russia to go up a notch. But inst...

:grimace:

Ok, hold on. I didn't know this. Why does NATO see Russia as a strategic adversary? I'm asking for real. Maybe I could come back to the rest of your p...

Maybe Benkei isn't getting any, so he keeps fantasizing about you and I. I guess he swings in multiple directions.

But if you have a problem with a certain power, what's the alternative to applying a counter power? Isn't that pretty basic? IOW, just being anti-powe...

I think all contemporary democracies allow temporary dictatorship during war. Don't you know why?

During a war it's better to ditch democracy because it's sloppy and inefficient. Come back to it after the war is over. The pundits are saying this is...

I don't know why it's in their constitution, maybe @"ssu" knows? The Russian president can override the constitution. I don't know if Ukraine's is sim...

Not entirely. But kudos for noticing the constitutional situation. Very reasonable of you.

Ah. So I did know Zelensky had tried to emergently join, and I thought it was obvious why. He's since let that go.

Zelensky's soundbite there is all over the news. I specifically picked an article that mentions it in the context of the Ukrainian constitution. Pundi...

Ok. Correct.

Sorry guys, but if you wanted to discuss this sanely, you should have demonstrated that earlier. I can't deal with either of you.

Here.

Zelensky also clearly stated before the invasion that he had no hopes for joining NATO. I think you might be on the verge of being semi-reasonable abo...

Scholz said there were no plans to accept Ukraine into NATO, and "That is why it is that the Russian government is making something that is practicall...

:cool:

We'd probably need to get that directly from QAnon. :razz:

They're in on it. No doubt about it. George Soros, man. It all links up.

Oh yea. He'd never even heard of Dostoevsky. What a lot of these "Putin bad" people don't get is that it's not Russians invading Ukraine. It's America...

I think you meant to say that America is financing neo-nazi chemical warfare plants in Ukraine. Or biological warfare. But then, anthrax is actually m...

Well, the US is just a giant killing machine. If you piss it off, you get what you deserve. Obviously.

So true. The French seemed to be friends of the Iraqi children, but they were really more like drug dealers, getting those children killed. Or more ki...

What bothers me is that while the US is actively bombing Iraq, killing children, orphaning children, and giving children a charred wreck to grow up in...

That's two in a row! What? Is Twitter down? jk

Hey! A post with no misinformation! :up:

You got your condemnation of America. I'll pile mine on top of that. It doesn't satisfy, does it? Why is that?

Gut wrenching. But you know Isaac has shown his true colors. Sad.

Like being bound to facts is a sign of weakness. Yep.

https://youtu.be/FOSBc_cJfdY

It's abuse.

Well, emotionally. Maybe not legally. I wonder if he realizes you can't see in the dark like he can.

There's a theory that Putin and Trump express obvious lies as a means of domination. The relentless bullshit creates a fog of abuse. I'd say refusing ...

It's not just efficiency, although that's part of it. They're beautiful. Dogs have obvious emotions that we can understand. Killing a dog is murder. K...

Part of the problem is that I love insects. They're amazing. I mean, just look at the engineering of a fly. All that technology in a tiny package. How...

Interesting. I'll check it out.

Fill the air with lies so nobody knows what to think. That's what the exploiters do to control the public. They do it for profit. Some cumquats do it ...

But Georgia was on my mind. Because of an old sweet song.